Friday, December 28, 2007

In most circumstances, Betty is happy to pay a buck or two more to get the "natural" product. You would think our household was the set for an ad for Seventh Generation! But Seventh Generation doesn't make deodorant. And maybe there is a good reason for this!

At press time, Betty has tried out and dried out THREE different brands of natural deoderant (Tom's of Maine, JASON, and some hippie stick). All three have allowed her to "naturally" smell through her shirts like a big pile of garbage inside of an armpit. Please help!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Betty is petsitting for Nellie, a rescued dog (her breed? "she's every woman") this week. Isn't she so beautiful? Nellie loves it when Betty comes to the door almost as much as she love wolfing down (pun intended!) her kibbles in the morning and going for little walks on the rain-touched grass.

Just don't tell Cocoa about this, ok?

In other Koko-related news, Koko the Clown sent Betty and Bimbo the most wonderful holiday gift! It took us a little while to figure out what it was, but finally a light flickered (dimly, we're slow)! It's a flower vase you can write on with chalk! And then watch your ideas bloom and grow and change with the seasons. Thank you, Koko!

Holiday love also goes out to loyal readers Jackie, Sarah, and Hugo, who sent our little family the sweetest little card. We hope you are all cuddled up somewhere warm this week.

Happy 2008 from Betty and Bimbo!We want to know what you're doing these days to round out the year. Year-end top ten lists are also encouraged.

According to the last U.S. Census, only 25% of U.S. households include a married couple. This stat indicates a 50% drop since the days of Ozzie and Harriet (50 years ago), when the married couple household rate was still just 50% of the total! Who knew?

Also, across the ethnic spectrum, lower-educated and lower-income households are much less likely to contain married couples than highly educated and high-income households. The correlation between education and income is clear, but what does this all have to do with marriage? Should we be troubled that families that might presumably need the stability that marriage brings the most aren't getting it? Why is marriage becoming a luxury? What's going on here?

Also, the divorce to marriage rate is still 2:1, and there are now more unmarried females over age 15 than married ones.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

We got there nearly an hour early and the theater was packed, which seemed ironic for a movie about extreme solitude (after the show, back on the street, all we could think was "Where are all these PEOPLE coming from?!", which is a testament to the film's visual impact).

Betty is so unused to seeing movies of this action/adventure/apocalypse type, especially from the third row! So every punch and careful sound effect and hairpin turn made her carom off the side of her seat.

Will Smith was appealing and Odyssean as a man always preparing to defend and clash, but also doing everything to show us the nearly unlimited potential of his situation. And he's been working out! It must have been a year of exercise for the twenty second shirtless scene.

Bimbo thinks this movie may actually have worked better as an HBO mini-series. It makes daily life seem quite rich, and many of the details were funny and thoughtful. And Betty liked the importance of social life that the film emphasized and toyed with.

Ultimately though, this movie is sacchrine and silly. It changes tone even technique drastically in the last 10 minutes (Betty thinks there should be an industry ban on last-minute voiceovers!) and winds down as a collection of cool images, not much more.

What did other people think? We are loathe to spoil the fun (and the tears! Betty's tears at halftime!), but please weigh in. We are interested in the earlier film versions of this story, too.

Friday, December 14, 2007

U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday is one of Superman's favorite songs of all time. He listens to it to psyche himself up before runs, particularly the version from the concert in Argentina. This is the best version because Bono starts to sign random lyrics and Superman is not really sure if it is pure artistic genius or because Bono is not any position to operate heavy machinery. Probably a little bit of both. In fact, "coexista" sounds alot like a word that Superman would make up on his Spanish vocab test in the hopes of half credit, but its Bono so Superman goes with it.

During the holiday season, this U2 song always make Superman reflect on an issue that divided his great realtives. It would often sadly keep them apart at every Christmas and family function. (Unless of course the grape juice had truly been flowing for a long enough period). The song also always makes Superman reflect on the senseless and tragic event - 14 dead, more wounded. This year, however, more innocent Americans have been shot and killed in excess of those killed in Ireland, in just a short three week period. These shooting rampages have happend at malls, churches, and school busses. Places where one might assume, we are safest. This is depressing, devastating and totally unacceptable. Sadly, these events have become commonplace and they shouldnt each need their own U2 song for people to care. Perhaps, it is time we ask people to give up their guns. Perhaps, we should, instead, give the guns to the peacekeeprs in Africa and then we might actually save lives. Regardless, it would be nice if Americans during the holiday season stopped killling each other, for once, and set an example for the rest of the world.

The same month the United States brought home the Davis cup for the first time in decades. Nothing could make Superman prouder, than the U.S. defeating the Kremlin and proving again to the Europeans, that they can't even dominate in cycling or tennis. (Jackass Landis, not withstanding) Tennis is a non contact sport better known for short white shorts, granted, but at least it is still the one pure thing left in this small world. But we cant even have that. This time the cup was title was tainted when the Russian captain auspiciously left off top choice Daveydenko from the lineup. The captain cited strategic reasons but everyone knows Daveydenko has more recently been "losing his serve" and tanking matches, even in the midst of a betting probe. Nobody in the history of the game, has ever tanked matches in such an obvious fashion as Daveydenko. Rather than inconspicuoulsy miss shots by inches, he chooses to hit his serve out like an eight year old beginner and then doesn't even bother to feign some crippiling injury. He is clearly not trying to hide the fixing and desperately crying out for help from whatever goons are pressuring his family. This has sadly tainted America's improbable run to the title. Superman hopes that honor will be restored to the sport soon and that eveyone will try a little harder at this whole coexista thing.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

When Betty attended the greatest concert of her life in 2004 -- Bruce Springsteen solo live at the Boson Fleet Center -- she saw the Boss perform this song as a final encore. She had never heard the song before and wondered where it came from. She also wondered what the hell instrument Bruce is playing? What do you call that? A pump organ with recall?

Betty loves the quintessential Bruciness of this performance. How does he manage to connect with every single person in the audience like that? It's a rare thing. She wishes she could find clips of the songs he performed just stamping his feet with a percussion box and harmonica, etc.

Anyway, today Betty learned that the original "Dream Baby Dream" is not from the 50s, or from Bruce's own bottomless back catalog, as it might sound. Rather, the song was originally recorded by a short-lived androgynous electronic duo from the 80s called Suicide. Shockingly (especially for something obscure, electronic, and from the 80s), the band has no Wikipedia entry! Any more information our readers can provide on this curious matter would be most welcome!